Raccoons
Several summers ago while we were leading our church youth group at our home. A few of the teenagers went exploring up in the haymow of the large unused dairy barn on my parent's farm. They came down all excited that they had found three little raccoon babies! In my mind I knew what we had to do- we raised chickens and didn't need raccoon pests around. Well the kids begged to keep them and I asked Dale to dispatch them after youth group. All of us (being the softhearted people we are) couldn't do it. Two days later we found that the mama had gotten killed in the auger. And one of the babies was down in the lower part of the barn hissing and angry. Dale got on some leather gloves and put it in an appliance box. We looked all over the haymow and couldn't find the others. Eventually we found a second one curled up in the silo room-cold. I didn't move it-thought it was dead. Later my daughter brought it to me very much alive, but cold. When we put it in the box with the other one it quit growling and hissing and let us handle it. They didn't seem able to drink milk out of a bowl without nearly drowning. So we got a baby bottle and mixed milk, Shaklee protien powder and baby rice cereal for them and they clutched the bottle with their little "hands" and drank away.
What a project we got into for the summer!!! Katie was working evenings waitressing and taking drivers ed in the mornings. And I worked the 11 to 7 shift as night auditor of a hotel. So David pretty much got designated as "mamma". He bottle fed them and they followed him around like a puppy. We named the one Snickers and the other Cadeau (meaning gift in French - Katie is into the French thing!) When they got bigger we fed them sardines, catfood and grapes- they loved those grapes. That August, Katie and David went to Florida to stay with their grandma and grandpa and the responsibility of caring for the coons fell totally on my shoulders. They began to become more nocturnal in their habits about then also so I put out food, but often didn't see them. One night as I was leaving for work Snickers showed up with his rear food totally mutilated-it was awful!!! He let me hold it and examine it and it looked clean. I thought about bandaging it, but figured he'd rip at it and possibly injure it worse. I was concerned because I knew he wouldn't be able to climb as fast, but we were trying to let them care for themselves more and I decided to do nothing. The leg did heal on its own, but he had a really funny limp. By the end of the month when the kids got home we rarely saw them at all. We often wondered if they were ok or had even made it alive.
During the winter I began to see evidences of them. There was a trail through the cow pasture from a patch of woods leading up to the catfeeder! Last summer the dogs were getting all excited about some noise in the barn so I put them in the house and went up there. I hollered in there (it was dark) and heard a low chirring in response. I kept calling and kept getting a response from a fairly large raccoon who I'm sure was one of ours. I have respect for large ones though so kept my distance. We will always remember fondly the baby coons who stole our hearts for one summer and the blissful hours of them stripping the oats that grew wildly in patches in my garden and them following me up each row as I weeded. And also them trying to climb up the inside of my roomy jumper only to peer out the top right under my chin! :) And introducing them to water in the child's pool where they would wash small pebbles. And the feel of their soft "hands" as they would check out your face. And them annoying Katie and I as we went over drivers ed material on the picnic table. And a certain youth group will never forget their summer at our house where raccoons frequently visited our weekly meetings! It was worth fencing the poultry and taking precautionary measures to not provide our friends with a poultry meal! One more of those experiences that only country living can provide.